The Alouette 1 was the first Canadian satellite launched into space. The name Alouette 1 is a French word but in English it means skylark. It was launched five years after the USSR sent the satelliete Sputnik 1 into orbit in 1957. The Alouette 1 is a small ionospheric observatory instrumented with an ionosperic sounder, VLF receiver, energetic particle detector and a cosmic noise experiment. All these things were used to study the ionosphere in space. The ionosphere is the upper atmosphere were many future satellites will be placed into orbit.  The mission directors were Canadians John Herbert Chapman and Colin A. Franklin. They both received a modicum of success. The Alouette 1 was launched by NASA because Canada doesn’t have any launch sites. The entire mission lasted ten years and it was a success.